Why is prostitution illegal but people can have sex for money in porn?
May 22, 2010 by
Filed under prostitution
In prostitution, someone plays someone else to have sex with them. Its illegal.
In pornography, someone pays you to have sex with someone, and also documents it…. and its legal!?
Someone told me porn has to do with free speech, but that doesn’t explain why prostitution is illegal then.
Someone else told me prostitution spreads disease and is not regulated and thats why its illegal. Well its not regulated because its not allowed.
So can someone explain this?
It looks like two identical things to me: sex for money.
I’ve always wondered that. I wonder if you can legally setup a prostitution ring under the guise that it’s amateur porn and get away with it. I guess the only differences is in porn your get paid for doing it, and in prostitution you pay to do it.
I agree with you — it makes no sense at all.
I have been waiting for a question like this, to me, porn and prostitution are extremely similar, and they should both be illegal. The only difference is that in one, the customer is participating in the sex, and the other, they are paying to watch it, but basically, they are both sex for money.
Prostitution is usually only prosecuted as a result of “sting” operations when police pose as either would-be hookers or would-be customers.
Kind of hard to do in the professional porn industry, don’t you think? Not to mention the difficulty parsing the concepts of “acting” and “having sex for money”.
Prostitution is illegal because our government still has puritanically-based views on sexuality. They blabber constantly about freedom, but then go on to tell people what they can and can’t do in the bedroom. Do I think prostitution is good? No. But if we allow strip clubs I don’t see how prostitution is a much farther step.
Why is it legal for me to take a girl out to dinner and a movie worth $50 for sex, but illegal for me to just give her cash?
Trading sex for cash is wrong, but trading sex for services (dinner and movie) is ok? It really does not make any sense at all.
I personally don’t think anybody should be a prostitute. It is degrading and immoral. But I don’t think it should be any more illegal than being a slut.
> Someone told me porn has to do with free speech, but that doesn’t explain why prostitution is illegal then.
I answered a similar question like that the other day so maybe it was me
I think you understand why making a movie embodies speech, right?
And how restricting the content of the speech in the movie would be a 1st Amendment violation, right?
OK, that takes care of the porn part, let’s move on.
Prostitution is a service, in other words just plain commerce.
Unless there is an artistic element in it (like filming a movie perhaps!), it is hard to see how the act of prostitution is anything other then commerce without speech.
So, speech protections don’t apply, but rules allowing regulation of commerce certainly do.
In the case of prostitution, independent of any moral claims some might make, it is possible to justify regulation as a public health issue.
That is not to say that other regulatory schemes are not possible, or that they would not be feasible or even effective in achieving public health goals.
But porn and prostitution are apples and oranges, and you didn’t ask why other commerce regulatory schemes didn’t win out, only why the current one exists.
To recap, one involves speech, which is protected (and also regulated, but you didn’t ask), and one doesn’t.
I am sure you know there are plenty of porn sites where guys pay girls (and follow other regulations), and post the results. If you want to pay for sex legally, you can start such a web site
So, there you have it. Apples, oranges, and a practical solution to your dilemma. It is a good day huh?
I so totally agree with you, Martin. I see no difference. Why don’t they just legalize prostitution so that they can tax them ho’s…lol.